reflections of mine others might find useful

A major current event right now involves controversies surrounding Carrie Prejean, the current Miss California, who is also an outspoken Christian. There are so many intersting things to reflect on with regard to the story that I’m going to divide it up into four posts.

This first post is on the subject of intolerance. As everyone knows, she likely lost the Miss USA competition last month likely because of her answer to Perez Hilton’s question about gay marriage. Her answer was very appropriate: she said we live in a country where people have the freedom to choose, but for her family she was raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I couldn’t have said it much better. Way to go Carrie!

The irony is that while she’s being accused of intolerance (she’s not–she allows others to disagree) she’s being treated with intolerance: losing the contest, being called all kinds of names, and even receivinig a death threat! Another irony is that she essentially said the same thing as Mr. Obama, who was not so villified. In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama is purported to have said, “I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.” (source not confirmed). So why wasn’t Mr. Obama villified? Perhaps because he has defended gay rights and is for legal civil unions. In contrast, Carrie is perceived to be an enemy of those who would seek to expand homosexual rights and thus is an open target.

My point here isn’t about gay marriage–I have my own views about that issue, which many people on both sides would likely disagree with.

The point of this post is that it’s likely that in our increasingly post-Christian country, where biblical morality is becoming more and more disdained, we will experience great intolerance about our views. My hope is that we don’t succumb to the pressure to betray our beliefs or compromise on what we perceive to be truth. May we be like Carrie, who allowed others to disagree, but who showed integrity in being faithful to her values.

Fortunately, there is still enough of a collective conscience so that the injustice done to Carrie has catapulted her into a major news story. I fear that in the future, such injustice done to us will be largely ignored.

Carrie has shown consistent biblical moral values — with regard to marriage anyways. But that leads into Part 2.